Reeling KU women to entertain No. 17 Aggies

The KU women's basketball team will play its senior night regular season finale against Texas A&M Saturday. The Jayhawks have not had the strongest conference showing, but still have hopes for postseason play.

Nevertheless, Kansas University’s fading women’s basketball team is awfully close to careening out of control, and the prospects for recovery aren’t bright with No. 17-ranked Texas A&M; coming to town tonight.

Tipoff for the Jayhawks’ Senior Night will be 7 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse. Sunflower Broadband 6 will carry a live telecast.

KU’s hopes of an at-large NCAA berth died last week following lopsided road losses to Baylor and Nebraska that ran the Jayhawks’ losing streak to four. Now KU has to hope for a return to the WNIT and perhaps another stirring run like the one that carried them into last year’s championship game.

After tonight’s regular-season finale, Kansas won’t play again until next Thursday at the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, either as the No. 8, No. 9 or No. 10 seed.

A season that began with promise has evolved into one of crushing disappointment in the wake of ACL injuries suffered by Angel Goodrich and Danielle McCray.

After Goodrich went down in early January, the Jayhawks won three of their next five. But since McCray’s knee buckled during practice in early February, KU has dropped six of its last eight.

McCray is one of five seniors who will be honored in a ceremony following the game. The others are Sade Morris, LaChelda Jacobs, Kelly Kohn and Porscha Weddington.

While Kansas is celebrating Senior Night, a trio of Texas A&M; standouts will be involved in a homecoming of sorts. The Aggies’ Tanisha Smith, Tyra White and Danielle Adams all hail from the Missouri side of the Kansas City Metro area.

Smith is from Lincoln Prep, White from Hickman Mills and Adams from Lee’s Summit. Interestingly, the three are also the Aggies’ leading scorers — Adams (15.6), Smith (15.2) and White (10.2).

Adams, a 6-foot-1 forward who was chosen the Big 12’s preseason newcomer of the year after being named national juco player of the year in 2009, does not start, but usually logs around 30 minutes a game.

Notes

• A&M; has won six straight in the series, including a 73-60 decision last year in College Station, Texas. KU hasn’t defeated the Aggies since 2003. …

• A&M; and Kansas sit on both sides of the Big 12 turnover margin chart. The Aggies lead the league while the Jayhawks are last. …

• Of the Jayhawks’ five league victories, two have been against 11th place Colorado, two more against cellar-dweller Missouri and one over Kansas State, which also has a 5-10 conference record.